'Proud Mary' (2018)

Genre: Action, Crime, and Thriller

Director: Babak Najafi

Writers: John Stuart Newman and Christian Swegal

Cinematographer: Dan Lausten

Editor: Evan Schiff

Rated: R

Mary’s life is turn around when she meets a young boy name Danny. She tries to give him a better life, but it doesn’t mix well with her job as an Assassin.

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The cast of ‘Proud Mary’ was great and Taraji P. Henson did a great job acting in this film. Unfortunately, the story isn’t anything new than any other assassin/hit-person movie. The assassin/hit-person becomes guilty over a bad mission and try to make it up to the victim, they get attached or develop feelings, they decide to take their last mission so they can spend it with the victim, the people they work for are not happy, and fight goes down. Luckily, Mary and Danny have a happy ending compare to the other assassin/hit-person film. The stakes weren’t really that high to create an intense tension except hoping Danny and Mary live. 

The mother/son relationship between Mary and Danny was the highlight of the film with their cute, touching moments. Mary and Danny are similar in some ways in having a rough childhood and being force into their predicament.  It’s interesting to see how Benny and Mary have a similar parent/child relationship as Mary creates with Danny. Mary is firm when disciplining Danny, and we see Mary used the same technique that Benny used on her.

The feel of the film from the trailer was different to the feel of the actual film. The trailer had an upbeat 80s vibe, and we only see that during Mary’s big fight scene towards the end of the film.

The Writers of this film worked on Short Films and TV Shows, with ‘Proud Mary’ being one of the feature-length film they worked on. Babak Najafi worked on a few Foreign films and Short Films. Another film he directed that stood out was ‘London Has Fallen’ (2016). The Cinematographer, Dan Lausten, has worked on several projects. The film that stood out the most to me in his work history was, ‘The Shape of Water’ (2017). The cinematography in ‘The Shape of Water’ gives off a different feel compare to ‘Proud Mary’. ‘Proud Mary’ has some scenes with wonderful cinematography, but it doesn’t have the same style as ‘The Shape of Water’. It was a surprise to see the two films being connected by the same Cinematographer.